


Gambler's Prayer

by QueenOfTheQuill



Series: Two's Company [2]
Category: UnDeadwood (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, F/M, M/M, Monster of the Week, Multi, Polyamory, arabella just loves miriam y'all, gratuitous use of spells, i will protect miriam landisman with my life and so will arabella whitlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24379399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfTheQuill/pseuds/QueenOfTheQuill
Summary: Miriam screamed and Arabella’s heart stopped beating before it took off double time.When the Deadwood Five are separated on a job, what won't Arabella do to see Miriam and the Reverend returned safe?
Relationships: Aloysius Fogg/Miriam Landisman/Matthew Mason/Clayton Sharpe/Arabella Whitlock, Miriam Landisman/Arabella Whitlock, Royal Flush - Relationship
Series: Two's Company [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760335
Comments: 7
Kudos: 30





	Gambler's Prayer

Miriam screamed and Arabella’s heart stopped beating before it took off double time.

She, Clay, and Aly were all pinned down behind a set of boulders, taking potshots at whatever demons Hell had cooked up for them this week. A pack of something with four legs that looked like a cross between a coyote and a mountain lion--if either of those animals was as tall as a horse at the shoulder--was killing cattle that Swearengan wanted alive. The pack’d chased the group through a series of narrow canyons until Miriam and the Reverend’s horses had split down a separate path, seemingly in a panic if Miriam’s curses were any indication.

Bella had wanted to turn back immediately, but unfortunately, her horse had struck a gopher hole and turned a leg earlier in the day, leaving her riding pillion with Mr. Sharpe. He certainly wasn’t turning around, but she saw his eyes tighten as he turned his head briefly towards the other path before driving them up a narrow ledge where they could take some refuge and try to pick the monsters off.

And then Miriam screamed.

Immediately, Arabella tried to rise, to take her chances running between the five demon animals at the base of the cliff, but Aloysius got his arm around her waist before she could take a step and Clay helped him pull her back down. Even thrashing against their hold, Bella took a moment to be impressed that he kept firing with his free hand, unearthly shrieks marking his hits.

“Let me go! She’s hurt, she needs help!  _ MIRIAM!” _

“Bella, you ain’t gonna do anything for her running right into a pit ’a claws and teeth and whatever else those monsters have goin’.” Aly’s voice was low and desperate in her ear as he tried to hold her down and take his own shot.

“Like hell I  _ ain’t _ .” Reaching into Clay’s pocket on an instinct, Bella ripped a deck of cards out of his pocket, drawing her arm back and  _ whipping _ a card into the air over the beasts below.

Instantly, her vision blacked to the darkness of the Dealer’s table. “Interesting choice,” it murmured with a flash of teeth in the nothingness. “Let’s play a game.”   
  


“Let’s,” Arabella agreed tightly, full society face on display as the cards were laid down.

_ Seven of diamonds. _

_ Three of diamonds. _

_ Six of clubs. _

_ Queen of diamonds. _ (Bella carefully doesn’t allow herself to flinch at the sight of Miriam’s face gazing out from the card.)

_ Two of diamonds. _

Arabella let her breath hiss through her teeth in frustration, tapping the six for a switch.

_ Joker _ .

_ Aly, I’m going to kiss you _ , Bella thought giddily, staring at the picture of his face. “Ace of diamonds and I believe that’s a flush. Ace high, not that it matters.” Putting her hands on the table, she leaned forward. “Now  _ blow these sons of bitches away _ .”

As her vision snapped back to reality, Bella watched the card land perfectly in the swarm of monsters and detonate, looking like one of Miriam’s special vials.

At the same moment, Bella cried out as she felt something in her shoulder give in a way it wasn’t meant to. She sagged against Aly as all three of them blinked spots out of their vision.

“Holy shit, Bella,” murmured Clay with a quiet reverence. Below them, nothing remained of the clutch of beats beyond singed fur and the odd limb.

Aly, bearing most of her weight, was more focused on her condition. “Bells, are you-”

“Aloysius Fogg, I swear to all that’s holy, if you two don’t get me to Miriam and the Reverend  _ right now _ , Heaven help me, you’ll both be sleeping on the  _ porch _ .” Gritting her teeth, Arabella stood, using her good shoulder to shove past both men to the horses.

“Alright, hold your horses. You ain’t mountin’ up with a shoulder hangin’ like that. Aly, you first.” Clay waited until Aly was seated on his mare before lifting Bella around her waist to sit behind him and running to his own horse.

“Just hold on ‘s best you can, Miss Arabella.  _ Hiya. _ ” Though she could only see a sliver of Aly’s face as he kicked their horse into a gallop, Bella could see the same love and concern radiating from it as she felt beating a rapid tattoo behind her own ribs.

They thundered back down the canyon, twisting around the bend where they’d last seen their partners at a speed that nearly had Arabella sliding from the saddle. She hung onto Aly with grim determination, hauling herself back into her seat with gritted teeth as her shoulder screamed.

Ahead, shapes shifted in the darkness, thrown into sudden sharp relief as a hand with a rosary thrust into the air and the rocks above blazed with light. Bella cried out as she watched the Reverend slump almost as soon as he’d cast the spell; an animal threw itself into the boulder and knocked him off balance, cracking his head off the rock wall behind them. It left Miriam fighting to keep both him and herself atop the boulder where they were perched without dropping her rifle. As the three thundered forwards, the two horses pushed close by the narrow walls, Bella had to bite back another scream as a creature leapt at the rock, missing Miriam’s skirt by inches.

Everything snapped into clarity and she let go of Aly’s waist to draw her Colt. The memory of Clay’s hands around hers as he taught her how to shoot out behind the church drifted into view. In her mind’s eye, he guided her hand just a little higher and she adjusted accordingly. One breath in, one breath out.  _ Fire _ .

Another creature was knocked off course mid-leap, Arabella’s bullet clean through its skull. Small sparks were dissipating from the barrel of her gun and she caught Clay turning back to take his own shots, unnaturally fast as Aly withdrew his own hand from Clay’s leg. He used it to wipe away the slight trickle of blood leaking from his nose as Bella prepared to fire again.

Suddenly outnumbered, the creatures caging Miriam and Matthew circled the boulder once more before fleeing. Clayton fired four times in rapid succession, taking out one in the hind leg and riddling it with bullets before it even hit the ground. Half sitting on Matthew to keep him in place, Miriam took aim and shot another through the heart. The third fled into the night as Arabella’s last bullet ground into the dirt behind it.

Clay reigned to a quick stop next to the boulder, already reaching out to Miriam. “Here, hand him down.” Aly dumped the reins in Bella’s good hand and slid off the horse to help guide the hulking form of the Reverend onto Clay’s horse. Bella couldn’t do much more than sway in place as the adrenaline slowly drained from her system.

“Your horses?” asked Clay as Aly helped Miriam down to the ground.

She shook her head. “Long gone. They bolted when we got off, and took a couple of those  _ things _ with them on a merry chase. I’m afraid the poor darlings are probably caught by now, and gone the same way as the local cattle.”

Clay’s stallion reflected his uneasiness, dancing to the side before he soothed it. “We’ll have to camp out here tonight then. There’s no way we’re going to make it back to town tonight with two horses and an unconscious Reverend.”

“I saw a cave over yonder, up where we were havin’ our own last stand,” Aly said from where he had one comforting arm around Miriam. “Only one way up or down to it, so it should be defensible enough, and it’ll let Miss Arabella and the good Reverend rest up and recover from tonight.”

Miriam’s gaze sharpened on Arabella immediately. “You’re hurt?”

Bella dragged up her politest society smile and knew it was a mistake as soon as she saw Miriam’s eyes narrow. She pushed ahead anyway. “Just a little payment for the Dealer, you don’t need to worry your head none about it. Spell went off just fine.”

“She threw a blast the size of Texas at a whole group of these things to get to y’all,” Clay ratted her out as he fussed over getting Matthew draped as comfortably as possible behind him.

“The  _ porch _ ,” Arabella hissed at him as he rode past her at a gentle walk. He had the audacity to simply tip his hat to her with a smirk.

Aly glanced between the two ladies with his own slow smile. “As much as I enjoy watching Bella get the kind of tongue lashin’ you usually save for the boys, Miss Miriam, maybe we can wait until we’re a touch more secure to hear you rain fire from the heavens?”

Miriam sniffed and grabbed the reins to lead Bella’s horse. “I can save the readin’ of the riot act at least that long. C’mon, darlin’.”

Bella’s mind fuzzed out for a while, vaguely feeling as she was guided to a few different locations. Someone said something in a low buzz and she started to turn her head towards them when a pain lanced through her shoulder, abruptly spearing her back to reality.

Clay was in front of her, an apologetic smile on his face as Miriam tied some spare cloth around Arabella’s neck as a sling for her arm.

“Well, your arm’s back in its socket, as best as Mr. Sharpe there can get it, and Mr. Fogg’s tending to the Reverend,” Miriam told her, dusting her skirts off matter-of-factly and settling against the wall with her rifle in her lap. “And I’d really prefer the  _ lot _ of you to be more careful with that power you’re throwing ‘round like it’s pennies for candy.”

Bella slumped into Miriam’s side, careful not to jostle her arm. Across the small cave, she could see Clay with Matthew’s head in his lap, stroking his hair and humming a church hymn. Aly was tearing their trail rations into pieces, offering every other bite to Clay. Her family was safe and the last bit of tension unwound itself from her spine.

“Heard you scream,” she slurred, eyes already slipping closed. “Had to come get you. Worth it to hurt a li’l.” She didn’t know what kind of expression Miriam was wearing, but she felt a pair of lips on the top of her head as she drifted towards unconsciousness. Miriam’s voice was quiet and sad when she answered.

“I know darlin’. But I don’t wanna lose you to savin’ me.”

“Worth it,” Arabella repeated right before she slipped under with a smile on her face.

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone was curious about the game mechanics used, the first spell cast was Blast. I rolled for Arabella’s damage against the monsters and the hand of Marisha Ray herself guided me: I rolled 27. I rolled a 6 for her on the backfire table, so she took damage as a result.
> 
> Riding down the canyon, Clay cast Aim on Bella and Aly cast Quickness on Clay. I made Arabella’s spell work like it did for Plot Reasons, but Clay and Aly both had to actually draw. Aly had to use a Joker and also rolled a 6, resulting in damage to him.


End file.
